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Published Nationally ®
Western Edition
May 10 2020 Vol. IX • No. 10
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Contractor Profile: Sonora Construction
Las Vegas Interchange Starts to Takes Shape...8
Industry Veteran Retires From Kobelco...13
Brittain Griffith Has Houston-Area Company on Top
Kirby-Smith Machinery Opens Waco Facility...14
Table of Contents ................4 Paving Section .............23-35 Attachments Section.. 41-53 Auction Section ..........62-65 Business Calendar............ 64 Advertisers Index ..............66
Brittain Griffith, owner of Sonora Construction in Houston, checks on progress at the Bridgeland subdivision site. Story on page 40. Sonora is moving 2.4 million cu. ft. of dirt to create a 4-mi.-long string of lakes in the Howard Hughes Company development.
Brittain Griffith likes to play in the dirt. Millions of cubic yards at a time. The self-proclaimed “high-tech redneck dirt mover” likes to go “as hard and fast as I can every day.” That, coupled with an unyielding desire to push the limits of his operation’s capabilities has made his company, Sonora Construction,
one of the largest excavation companies in Texas. Griffith, who majored in civil engineering at Texas A&M, began his career in a conventional way starting at a Houston-area civil engineering firm. “But all along, my goal was to meet the requirements to take the PE exam and then consider a career
in construction, Griffith said. “I always figured I’d switch over to the construction end. Ever since surveying with my dad during the summer growing up and watching those contractors lay pipe and move dirt, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.” Griffith did exactly what he intended to do and “switched over”
to construction after working five years at the engineering firm. “With my wife Jennifer’s full support I left a perfectly normal, secure job and started a construction company,” he said. “When my wife found out my first piece of dirt-moving equipment cost more than our house, I see SONORA page 40